Tag Archive | divorce

Pieces of Me, by Charlotte Gingras (fiction) – seeking friendship, hiding Mom’s illness

Jul14

Being a teenager is difficult. Coping with a parent’s mental illness can make it unbearable. And it’s just Mira and her mom, in that basement apartment.

How can you be anyone’s friend if your mother has your walk home from school timed to the second? Who wouldn’t have a crush on the only teacher who ever encouraged you?

Originally published in French as La Liberté. Connais pas… this slim, lyrical story won a 1999 Governor General’s Literary Award from the Canada Council for the Arts. Susan Ouriou’s translation is flowing and true, bringing us Mira’s story from the chilly Quebec streets.

Find this gem at your local library or independent bookstore to hear Mira’s tale.
**kmm

Book info: Pieces of Me / Charlotte Gingras; translated by Susan Ouriou. Kids Can Press, 2009. [author biography in French] [publisher site]

Recommendation: At 14, Mirabelle feels separated from real life – trapped in the basement apartment by her divorced mother who knows to the minute how long it takes Mira to walk home from school, reading in the school library so she doesn’t have to talk to anyone at lunch, hiding behind her long golden hair so no one sees her sketches.

Then Catherine arrives at school, and Mira’s life moves out of its dark cloud, bit by bit. They invent a club so that they can meet after school in the café once a week. Cath brings Mira to a table of friends at lunch. And they both work hard at the challenging assignments in art class.

Cath gets a boyfriend and drifts away, just a little, as Mira’s admiration of her art teacher becomes infatuation, and life becomes more complicated. Her wildlife biologist father returns to the city, asking about her plans for college – a startling idea for Mira, who isn’t sure how her mother would survive without her.

Discerning older teen readers will remember Mira’s love of color, her worries about her first kiss, and her dreams of escaping the basement apartment long after they close this slim volume, lyrically translated from the French by Susan Ouriou. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

What Happened to Goodbye (fiction)

Jun18

Shhhh… it’s my first Sneak-in Saturday, when I bring you a book that I read, loved, and reviewed BEFORE it rose to the bestseller lists. But it’s not fair to tell y’all about books months and months before you can buy them in your local indie bookstore or find at your library, so I have to wait till release date is near. And sometimes the darn pre-orders take a book to superstar status before it’s even published. Sigh.

So as a moving-all-the-time-kid myself, I really could identify with Mclean’s wish to just stop packing up and going away. Moving during high school stinks, let me tell ya.

It’s nice to find that Dessen is not a “formula” writer, that her situations and characters aren’t just carbon-copies from one book to the next. Her funny tweet today: “Most surreal experience: half asleep in terminal bookshop, hearing commercial for my own book on store TV. Whoa.” on her way to Houston.

Identity, family, friendship, and the future – one of the books y’all will love (even if it did wind up a bestseller, darn it). And some great insights into the restaurant industry and college basketball fandom, too.

**kmm

Book info: What Happened to Goodbye / Sarah Dessen. Viking Children’s, 2011. [author’s website] [author’s blog] [publisher website] [book trailer one and two]

Recommendation: Eliza, Beth, Lizbet –at each new school, Mclean uses part of her middle name to reinvent herself after the horrible divorce, as she and her dad travel from town to town so he can help failing restaurants. After Mom left Dad for the basketball coach at the university, their favorite team and shared passion, how could she stay in her hometown?

So she’s the drama rebel in one town, the joining-every-club girl in another, but never makes close friends because they’ll move again soon. She keeps Dad organized while he saves or closes down each restaurant – that and her schoolwork are enough.

Until this time, when she introduces herself as Mclean to the guy next door and winds up with a circle of unlikely friends at school. Getting involved with a community project being built in the restaurant’s upstairs room was a fluke, but what about getting involved with David next door?

How can she avoid her mom’s requests that she visit her new baby brother and sister at the coach’s big new house more often? How long will it take Dad to fix or shut down Luna Blu? When they leave this time, will she be able to just vanish from school again, without any goodbyes?

Another great story with heart from Sarah Dessen – 402 pages. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Who Is Frances Rain? by Margaret Buffie (fiction) – family squabbles, Gold Rush ghost

Jun3
book cover of Who is Frances Rain by Margaret Buffie published by Kids Can Press

Ah, summer vacation season…the change of scenery, the same ol’ family. Except when your family suddenly has a new member, like a stepparent.

So, escaping to the island is Lizzie’s best way to cope with the rising tensions at Gran’s place in Manitoba’s gold country. Even if she does start seeing visions…or ghosts…

So “who is Frances Rain” you wonder? Hope you’ve got plenty of flashlight batteries…
**kmm

Book info: Who Is Frances Rain? / by Margaret Buffie. Kids Can Press, 2007 [author’s website] [publisher site]

Recommendation: Lizzie is sure this summer will be awful – the Canadian gold rush country, all lakes and wilderness, was the kids’ special place with their grandmother, so why did Mom suddenly want to leave her law office and bring their new stepdad here for the summer?

Gran’s old lodge is the same, with board games for everyone and plenty of blueberry pie. Their across-the-lake neighbors are still the same, except 16 year old Alex has grown tall, towering over Lizzie and her big brother Evan. But Evan is awful to their stepdad, Mom’s good mood has vanished, and Gran tells Lizzie to stay away from Rain Island.

Of course, 15 year old Lizzie decides to escape the tension at the lodge and explore Rain Island on her own. When she finds an old pair of glasses that might have belonged to a woman prospector there, she begins to see ghosts or maybe visions of the past.

What are they trying to tell her? Why does she feel this strange connection to the island? When she and Alex start digging into the history of the island and the area’s gold rush days, the mystery becomes stranger than they ever could have imagined.

This great tale of suspense from noted Canadian author Margaret Buffie will have you wondering “who is Frances Rain?” with Lizzie and Alex until the very end. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)